|
Flowering Vines Add Drama to the Garden
By Hilda M. Morrill
June 30, 2008
 Flowering vines of all sorts, both annual and perennial, add an extravagant and dramatic touch to our gardens and outdoor living areas. Like a tumble of spectacular perennial clematis, flowering vines can add privacy, disguise harsh landscape elements, and give an aura of beauty.
Many annual vines grow fast enough to cover a trellis in only a few weeks. By mid-season, you can have an entire trellis softly covered with foliage to block the winds, offer some shade and add privacy.
The options are endless.
Plant them in the ground in front of a windowpane trellis or by a tree wrapped with a flexible trellis. Use them in a planter box with a redwood fan, a pot with a topiary frame, or in a hanging basket or window box.
A particularly attractive option if you have limited room is to construct a trellis in a planter box on a deck or balcony. Vines covering the trellis will add beauty without sacrificing room.
Most vines attach themselves to a supporting structure, such as fences or arches, with twining stems or twining tendrils. This allows them to attach easily to chain link, wire or thin strips of wood. Although it takes considerably more work to train one of these vines to a trellis made of wide boards, it can be done.
It may take some assistance from you to get them started, but once they've taken hold, your job is finished except to sit back and enjoy.
 Morning glories (Ipomoea purpurea), with their familiar clear blue, pink, scarlet or magenta trumpets, are some of the fastest growing annual vines with the added benefit of glorious flower displays. Whorled buds unfurl gracefully each morning and fade by early evening, only to be replaced by new buds for the next morning.
Morning glories are a logical choice for containers with trellises since the plants can get somewhat rampant in the garden. They will grow in almost any soil, in full sun or partial shade, and are easily started directly in the garden after frost is passed. Morning glory seed has a hard seed coat, so be sure to soak the seed overnight or nick the coat with a file before sowing seed in prepared garden soil.
The Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus), another old-fashioned flower, deserves its place alongside other annual vines. Its bright yellow, orange, red and white-spurred flowers appear like jewels amid round matte-finish dusty green leaves. The blossoms have an extraordinarily sweet scent that will fill a room when cut and brought indoors. All Nasturtiums grow and bloom best in poor soil. Rich soil will produce abundant foliage and few flowers. Seed Nasturtiums directly into the garden after the soil has warmed somewhat.
 Hyacinth Bean (Dolichos lablab) produces attractive blue-green leaves to complement its striking dark purple pea-like flowers and lovely purple bean pods. Hyacinth beans can grow to 15 feet or more in a summer if given average garden soil and plenty of water. Sow seeds directly in the garden after danger of frost has passed.
When planning to use vines, keep in mind that combinations can be absolutely charming. We've even grown annuals and perennial vines on the same garden arch. Try it. You might like the results!
Enjoy!
(We thank the National Gardening Bureau, Inc. for providing us with some background information. Images are (c) Hilda M. Morrill.)
|
